My daughter got the movie, “Frozen,” for her birthday. We watched it 3 times that weekend: twice on Saturday and once on Sunday.

I don’t know if I’m just weird, but I like to look for life lessons in the movies I watch. There are a lot of great lessons that I saw in this movie. One of them revolves around one of the main characters, Elsa. (Note: there are some spoilers here.)

Elsa was born with a special power to create and turn things into ice. As a young child, it was fairly easy to control. Elsa and her sister, Anna, would use it to have fun. After an accident, Elsa was hidden away and told to keep her powers a secret from everyone.

Fast forward to adulthood, Elsa is poised to become the next queen after the death of her parents. Elsa’s powers were accidentally revealed, causing shock to the people. In fear, Elsa ran to hide. While running, she finally decided to stop worrying about hiding her powers.

Elsa started to see the potential that her powers held – something she never knew because she always hid them. Her problem was never the powers themselves, simply in learning to control them.

Translating to real life (sorry to say, “Frozen” is not real), how many times are we told to keep our talents and abilities hidden? How many times have we told others to hide theirs?

Question: What do you need to let go of to go forward?

If you haven’t seen/heard it, here is a song from the movie, “Let It Go”:

Here are the words to the song (from metrolyrics.com):

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight

Not a footprint to be seen.

A kingdom of isolation,

and it looks like I’m the Queen

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside

Couldn’t keep it in;

Heaven knows I’ve tried

Don’t let them in,

don’t let them see

Be the good girl you always have to be

Conceal, don’t feel,

don’t let them know

Well now they know

Let it go, let it go

Can’t hold it back anymore

Let it go, let it go

Turn away and slam the door

I don’t care

what they’re going to say

Let the storm rage on.

The cold never bothered me anyway

It’s funny how some distance

Makes everything seem small

And the fears that once controlled me

Can’t get to me at all

It’s time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through

No right, no wrong, no rules for me,

I’m free!

Let it go, let it go

I am one with the wind and sky

Let it go, let it go

You’ll never see me cry

Here I stand

And here I’ll stay

Let the storm rage on

My power flurries through the air into the ground

My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around

And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast

I’m never going back, the past is in the past

Let it go, let it go

And I’ll rise like the break of dawn

Let it go, let it go

That perfect girl is gone

Here I stand

In the light of day

Let the storm rage on

The cold never bothered me anyway!